Herald Blogs

BY LISA LEFF, ASSOCIATED PRESS

SAN FRANCISCO -- Backers of California's ban on same-sex marriages asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday to overrule a federal appeals court that struck down the measure as unconstitutional, a move that means the bitter, four-year court fight over Proposition 8 could soon be resolved.

Lawyers for the coalition of religious conservative groups that sponsored the voter-approved ban petitioned the Supreme Court to review the lower court's finding that the 2008 amendment to the state constitution violated the civil rights of gay and lesbian Californians. The request had been expected since a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued its 2-1 decision earlier this year.

If the high court declines to take the case, it would clear the way for same-sex marriages to resume in California. Gay couples could get married in the state for several months before Proposition 8 passed, a right the measure was designed to take away. Same-sex couples still have the rights and benefits of marriage controlled by state law if they register as domestic partners.

The poll found an increase in support among Democrats since President Barack Obama announced in May that he favors same-sex marriage. In April, a Pew poll gauged support among Democrats at 59 percent.

The latest poll, conducted jointly by the Pew's Forum on Religion and Public Life and its Center for the People and the Press, was released a day after Democratic Party leaders said they intended to add support for gay marriage to the party platform at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., in early September.

At the time of the last convention, in 2008, 50 percent of Democrats favored allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally, while 42 percent were opposed. In the new poll, only 29 percent of Democrats were opposed.

According to Pew, support for gay marriage also has increased among independents. In the new poll, 51 percent of independents favor it, and 40 percent are opposed. In 2008, 44 percent of independents backed gay marriage, 45 percent were against it.

BY JULIE PACE, ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON -- The Democratic Party is moving to include support for gay marriage in the official party platform for the first time, a Democratic official said Monday, marking a key milestone for advocates of same-sex unions.

The party's platform drafting committee voted to include language backing gay marriage during a weekend meeting in Minneapolis, the official said. Democratic delegates will formally approve the platform during the party convention in Charlotte, N.C. in early September.

President Barack Obama will officially accept his party's nomination at the convention, which marks the start of the fall campaign blitz. Republican rival Mitt Romney will get the GOP nomination a week earlier during his party's convention in Tampa, Fla.

Seeking to ramp up enthusiasm among Democrats, party officials said Sunday that former President Bill Clinton will deliver the nominating speech on Wednesday night of the convention. Obama and Biden are to speak on Thursday, the convention's final night.

Several prominent Democrats began pushing earlier this year for support of same-sex marriage to be included in the convention platform, which lists principles the party supports. The effort got a boost in May when Obama voiced his personal support for same-sex unions.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON -- Dick Cheney says he didn't see the point of raising the issue of gay marriage in the 2000 presidential campaign, even though he supported it.

The former vice president suggested it wouldn't have done much good and probably would have sunk President George W. Bush's prospects for office. "Why?" he responded to ABC News when asked in a televised interview whether he should have pushed harder for gay couples to marry.

Cheney's daughter, Mary, married her longtime partner this June.

Cheney said of the wedding: "I'm sure it was fine. We wished them well. She wanted to avoid having it be a media circus or having it become part of the political debate. So Lynn and I were very proud and happy and congratulated them."

A 90-second cameo in the movies’ first Best Picture propelled actor Gary Cooper into superstardom.

“People wrote in by the droves, ‘Who is that young flier who got killed? We want more of him!” says his daughter, Maria, of how Cooper’s career took off after the 1927 silent aviation classic Wings, which won the first Academy Award.

Cooper, one of the biggest stars of Hollywood’s golden age, is enjoying a posthumous home-video revival: High Noon and Wings have recently been released on Blu-ray; this month Warner Archive issued on DVD one of his final films, 1959’s The Hanging Tree ($18).

“One of the things I love about The Hanging Treeis that it has ways of showing the nuances of his being an actor,” Maria Cooper Janis says. In the film, Cooper plays a Gold Rush medical doctor with a dark past.

“The story is much more interesting and a much more human kind of story,” Janis says. “It’s a nonwestern western.”

Janis, 74, describes her father’s early appeal: “There’s a combination when he was very young of extreme male beauty, extreme maleness and also a tremendous feminine vulnerability — all wrapped up in six-foot-four of a good-looking guy, plus he had a natural ability to act. He never went to school or took courses.”

Despite his lack of formal training, Cooper eventually won two Oscars for Best Actor: for Sergeant York(1941) and High Noon (1952). Other films in his canon: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, The Pride of the Yankees, For Whom the Bell Tolls and Friendly Persuasion.

Among his best friends: Ernest Hemingway. “He and Hemingway used to joke they both had a BS detector that was very far ranging,” Janis says. “They could pick it up a mile away.”

Cooper was known during the 1940s and ’50s as a political conservative. “Would he be wearing that hat today? I would say no. Categorically say no. I know the things he held for,” his daughter says.

During the Hollywood blacklist period, Cooper was called to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. He wouldn’t name names.

“Mr. Cooper, have you ever heard anyone say something that was communist or un-American?” he was asked in 1947.

“He looked at his cufflinks, he looked at the microphone and very deliberately, like one of this best roles, he said, ‘Well, I have heard some people say we might have a more efficient government without a Congress,” Janis recalls. “He had a great sense of justice. He was quite castigated by the far right in Hollywood at the time. He was threatened he would never work in this town again.”

Five years later, Cooper made High Noon, about a town marshal who shoots it out alone with a gang of killers. Many called it an allegory for the era’s communist witch hunt.

Cooper died of lung cancer in 1961.

“He had just had his 60th birthday,” Janis says. “He smoked like a chimney. He tried to give it up so many times. The only complaint I ever heard him make about the issue of dying, he said: ‘Damn it, just when I was beginning to learn what acting is all about.’ He was proud of his profession; he was always wanting to do better.”

BY MARGIE MASON, ASSOCIATED PRESS

HANOI, Vietnam -- Dinh Thi Hong Loan grasps her girlfriend's hand, and the two gaze into each other's love-struck eyes. Smiling, they talk about their upcoming wedding - how they'll exchange rings and toast the beginning of their lives together.

The lesbians' marriage ceremony in the Vietnamese capital won't be officially recognized, but that could soon change. Vietnam's Communist government is now considering whether to allow same-sex couples to marry or legally register and receive rights - positioning the country to be the first in Asia to do so.

"Our love for each other is real and nothing changes regardless of whether the law is passed or not," said Loan, 31. "But when it is passed, we will definitely go get registered. I can't wait!"

Even longtime gay-rights activists are stunned by the Justice Ministry's proposal to include same-sex couples in its overhaul of the country's marriage law. No one knows what form it will take or whether it will survive long enough to be debated before the National Assembly next year, but supporters say the fact that it's even being considered is a victory in a region where simply being gay can result in jail sentences or whippings with a rattan cane.

"I think everyone is surprised," said Vien Tanjung, an Indonesian gay-rights activist. "Even if it's not successful it's already making history. For me, personally, I think it's going to go through."

Vietnam seems an unlikely champion of gay-rights issues. It is routinely lambasted by the international community over its dismal human rights record, often locking up political dissidents who call for democracy or religious freedom. Up until just a few years ago, homosexuality was labeled as a "social evil" alongside drug addiction and prostitution.

This year we played the "Girls in Wonderland" events (sharing the bill with Uh Huh Her) along with the Florida Music Festival in Orlando Florida where it was estimated that out of 50,000 bands, only 150 bands were selected to play this exculsive industry event. Future plans include the releasing of our EP and new music video for our new single "Need a Girl", which will be submitted to Logo and other music television networks.

Our next show will be Monday Aug 6th at The Speakeasy Lounge in Lake Worth. We are sharing the night with lesbian owned and operated modern burlesque troop, The Reckless Dames.

BY RACHEL LA CORTE, ASSOCIATED PRESS

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos and his wife, MacKenzie, announced Friday they are donating $2.5 million to the campaign to defend Washington's same-sex marriage law.

With the gift, Washington United for Marriage has raised more than $5 million for its referendum campaign.

"It's a game changer for us," said campaign manager Zach Silk in Seattle. "It puts us in unique position to win."

But, his group is still the underdog, he said. In 32 previous elections nationally, same-sex advocates have lost. Silk said he believes the Washington election may be the turning point, thanks in part to the Bezos' donation.

"We're at a tipping point, and they really understand this is an historic moment, and they want to be on the right side of history and want to make history," he said.

Amazon.com Inc. publicly supported the law earlier this year, along with other prominent Pacific Northwest businesses, including Microsoft Corp., Starbucks Corp. and Nike Inc.

Last month, Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer and co-founder Bill Gates each donated $100,000 to support the law.

The Miami-Dade Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce held its Business Builders Luncheon — Downtown Thursday at City Hall - The Restaurant, 2004 Biscayne Blvd. in Miami. The luncheon is a networking program held on the last Thursday of each month.